Reference Waterloo Road's Wednesday night ratings.

Holby City doesn't really do much better whenever it is scheduled on a Wednesday, even if it's the 2nd part of a story that started on Tuesday and had a Tuesday-sized audience.
Face it - if Holby City could perform strongly on a Wednesday, surely it would have been moved there for the duration to allow both Waterloo Road and the sitcoms to benfite from running after Eastenders.

Wednesday 21st January 2009

8:00
ABC Lost: Destiny Calls (special) 8.48m
CBS The New Adventures of Old Christine 7.44m
NBC Knight Rider 4.98m
FOX American Idol 25.43m
CW 13--Fear Is Real 1.36m

8:30
CBS Gary Unmarried 7.07m

9:00
ABC Lost (season 5 premiere, 2 hours) 11.37m
CBS Criminal Minds 13.86m
NBC Law & Order: SVU (R) 5.57m
FOX Lie to Me (series premiere) 13.19m
CW 90210 (R) 819,000

10:00
CBS CSI: NY 11.75m
NBC Law & Order 8.49m

Lost (ABC) – Season premiere
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 11.85 million
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 11.46 million
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 11.19 million
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 10.98 million

Lie to Me (FOX)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 14.97m
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 11.38m
Decrease by 3.59m during half hour.

Why are ITV creating original dramas for ITV3 & ITV4 ie. Ladies of Letters (a 10 part series) and Good Arrows (a darts comedy drama) where they are likely to get lost amongst the repeats and re-runs.

Wouldn't these be better premiered on ITV1 and then onto the multichannels ?

Lost did lower than expected and lost out to Criminal Minds and Lie to Me in the first hour and barely beat CSI:NY in the second hour. Lie to Me did very well at the beginning thanks to AI but lost viewers but I think FOX will be pleased with how it did and I think it will do well on Sky1.

For the first time, I feel News at Ten needs to go, because I think it's a burden to the ITV schedules.

I know it's a good idea to let the show steadily increase, and it probably could, even though I think it would settle at a maximum of 3 million viewers.

The problem is: Stockwell was a good docudrama, but trapped with no advertising against two other factual shows. It amazes me why ITV actually scheduled it against two well performing factual shows.

The factual audience is limited as it is.

If News at Ten was out of the way, ITV could build up a 10pm slot for new shows/repeats. Ofcom would allow the 11pm switch for a compromise.

So, last night would've been a different story:-

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm Coronation Street
8:00pm The Bill
9:00pm Taggart [repeat] - 5m (as there was no other drama on last night)
10:00pm Stockwell [new + advertised] - 2m (no other factual shows in this slot, it was Big Brother, the news, etc.
11:00pm The Late News - 1.5m (which it would settle for on a regular basis).

The same could be said for other slots during the week:-

Monday

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm Coronation Street
8:00pm Tonight
8:30pm Coronation Street
9:00pm The Fixer
10:00pm Police, Camera, Action! [regular slot]
*Bagged around 3.5m in 2007 in this slot when aired after Doc Martin, I'm sure it could, if scheduled regularly, pick up a regular audience. This could be a mix of new episodes & repeats.
10:30pm Regional Programming
*Look how well the regional news does for BBC1 at 6:30pm, this slot would increase a regional 'politics' show's chances of getting around 2m on a regular basis.

And how about Thursday nights:-

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm Regional Programming
8:00pm The Bill
9:00pm Moving Wallpaper
9:30pm Headcases
10:00pm Pushing Daisies
*This could be a regular US import slot, perfect timing for viewers, as an entertainment theme runs on Thursday night with the comedy block.

Finally, ITV could make a compromise to increase regional programming so that they can instate 'The Late News' at 11pm, which could maximise advertising chances from 10pm-11pm.

Hmm. Some of those points I'd agree with (as for the 1* reviews, its always had that) but it's far from catastrophic. I do hope they move it, though.

As for not being recommisioned, didn't Survivors just get recommisioned with 4m or so, and Not Going Out barely gets 3m and yet keeps getting recommisioned. WR must be fairly cheap to make so as long as ratings don't dive further then I can see it coming back.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1441...down-pair.html

I see that DS is reporting the Mirror's story that Countdown's ratings have risen since the new presenting team took over.

I'd like to suggest that this has less to do with the new presenters and more to do with soaring unemployment.

Waterloo Road Series Averages

Series 1 - 4.70 Million
Series 2 - 4.81 Million (22%)
Series 3 - 5.06 Million (22%)
Series 4 - 4.35 Million (17.9%)

Every series so far has lost viewers for the first three episodes then gained some back by the fourth, but I can't see that happening this time

Series 1 - 5.2, 4.7, 4.6, 4.8
Series 2 - 5.0, 4.8, 4.5, 5.0
Series 3 - 5.2, 5.0, 4.6, 5.3
Series 4 - 4.6, 4.4, 4.0, ??

You want lunchtime figures for Neighbours?

Okay...

2009

Monday 5th January-Friday 9th January: all lunchtime episodes under 0.95m



2008

Monday 8th December-Thursday 11th December: under 1.11m
Tuesday 2nd December- Friday 5th December: under 0.97m
Monday 1st December: 1.05m

Monday 24th November: 1.03m
Tuesday 25th November: under 0.96m
Wednesday 26th November: 0.96m
Thursday 27th November: 1.02m
Friday 28th November: under 0.96m

Monday 17th November: under 1.06m
Tuesday 18th November: under 1.06m
Wednesday 19th November: 1.07m
Thursday 20th November: 1.07m
Friday 21st November: under 1.06m

Monday 10th November: 1.03m
Tuesday 11th November: under 1.01m
Wednesday 12th November: under 1.01m
Thursday 13th November: 1.01m
Friday 14th November: under 1.01m

Monday 3rd November: 0.98m
Tuesday 4th November: 0.94m
Wednesday 5th November: under 0.94m
Thursday 6th November: 1.03m
Friday 7th November: under 0.94m



And now the 0.75m on Wednesday.

1m is definitely not the lunchtime average for Neighbours in its time on Channel Five, because ratings obviously fell during the late spring, summer and early autumn.

But, during November and December, I think it's fair to say, from the figures above, Neighbours was hovering around 1m at lunchtimes.

Obviously, we don't have all the figures, because not every episode makes BARB's Channel 5 top 30.

Worth noting, there were a couple of weeks where the bottom show in the Top 30 was over 1m, whereas in the week Neighbours returned this January, there were some C5 shows below 1m in that list, but lunchtime Neighbours didn't make the list.



Of course, but the downward trends do not normally present themselves in winter.

My point stands, that for whatever reason, a lot of viewers haven't returned to lunchtime Neighbours after Christmas. We can be pedantic about how many until the cows come home, but the decline is undeniable.

The most likely explanation for this swift fall after the Christmas break is that they got out of the habit (of watching) because of the interruption of the Christmas break, but the concern is that now, halfway through the show's third week of 2009, some viewers still haven't got back into the habit.

Let us hope they do before too much longer.



Providing the missing viewers return.



Like she cared about ITV, only to move to Channel 4, then to Channel 5, then to BSkyB, then back to ITV, then back to Channel 5, then...


I'd like to reserve judgement until she's tested herself at the top of ITV, or in charge of one of the BBC's flagship channels, for a prolonged period. Or maybe she's too "anti-BBC" to ever do that. Her loss, if she is.



I'm getting at the fact it's highly unusual for no lunchtime episodes of Neighbours to make the C5 Top 30 when the bottom few C5 programmes of the week are below 1m.




Neighbours wasn't on C5 last January. My point was about Neighbours not making the top 30 with any of its lunchtime screenings this January, despite a number of Top 30 shows under 1m.



I'm not sure about artificial boosts. People had already had over 21 years of Neighbours and they already knew what to expect when it changed channels so, personally, I'd have hoped for the (teatime) winter 2009 figures to be closer to the (teatime) winter 2008 (C5) figures. Obviously, the reasons they're not closer are not C5's fault. It's to do with the quality of the Neighbours product taking a huge dip at UK pace in 2008. Sadly, for C5, through no fault of their own, that fall in quality coincided almost exactly with the move to C5.

Although, quality-wise, green shoots of improvement are now, finally in evidence to those who watch Neighbours, who's to say when (or if!) these improvements will reflect in ratings. Particularly as there are still some absolute clunkers of episodes in amongst the ones showing some signs of improvement.



Correct. Providing the show remains an asset in those respects over the next several years.


And I.

While I sense you're protective of Channel 5 and Neighbours, please be assured my comments are not part of any "agenda" against either party. Neighbours has a place in my heart, and Channel 5 is not a channel for which I hold any malice. Indeed, of the main channels, it is the one I'm most neutral towards.

Neighbours was a risk that has paid off.

Look at Tuesdays ratings, when we got the figures for every show.

Only the programmes at 9pm and 10pm got a higher audience than the teatime Neighbours, which itself was slightly down because of the inauguration.

When you put the teatime and lunchtime Neighbours together it was the 2nd most watched show of the day on Five, behind only CSI which topped BBC1 and ITV1.

These are slots which previously got 250,000 - 300,000 viewers.

Undeniably, but that is not the point I've been making.

Can you see the point I've been making: the fact some viewers have not returned to lunchtime Neighbours since the Christmas break?

Looking at Digiguide and noticed a few things:

WDYTYA has been scheduled against Whitechapel, not sure if it's new or not but the blurb says it features Rory Bremner.

A repeat of New Tricks has been scheduled against Minder, Grand Designs, a repeat of Foyle's War and a documentary on Alheizmer's with Terry Pratchett.

Kitchen Nightmare USA has been scheduled on Fridays at 9pm.

Five have scheduled another tabloid documentary in the vein of the Cheryl Cole and Ant and Dec ones and this time it is on Take That.

Yes, but as you rightly pointed out I was talking more generally.

Otherwise known as The FA Cup 4th Round Replay.

Yes, I think that ITV could better utilise the 10PM slot for quality American drama imports. Whether it's Dexter
or Life or something new. Showing these at 10:45PM is too late for many to notice or care. 10PM is the perfect slot for things like that though.

Strange/coincidental you say that because Pushing Daises is going into the Friday 10pm slot.

When you say "some viewers have not returned", the most your data can actually imply is that "not all viewers are watching as much".

But anyway, the point is that even if the Neighbours audience has declined, without knowing how much Five make from it, both in terms of literal ad revenue and abstract gains such as brand equity, none of us can say whether or not they are regretting their decision.

I wish in a way that Neighbours was still on BBC1. It was still regularly getting 4.5-5 million in all but is now languishing in the backwaters of TV land. Sad. And it's much better now generally than during 2005-07. I don't see why, when it went to five, it was getting nearly 3 million for the evening show and now already it struggles to get 2 million. That's a very fast decline.

The teatime showing started at 2.3m.

Well look at this guys...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/a1...de-a-week.html

Some of ITV's biggest news in a long time! It will have a permament 9pm slot which is something that doesn't happen on any channel atm with a permanent show airing at 9pm every week, bar Casualty. Also I'm guessing this is partly because of the football. It was one of the only options tbh with the football coming, although it could backfire with the show atm bringing in a solid 4.5-6m every week for 2 hours.

I would guess more schedule changes are on the way with the Thursday 8pm slot now vacant for potentially pre watershed dramas. This news has actually given ITV much more scope during the week for 8pm shows. Also it gives the BBC more scope with the Wed/Thu 8pm shows and maybe BBC saw this coming, hence the move of Waterloo Road?

The Bill is being cut to one episode a week and moved to 9pm.

Good move. Peter Fincham now has a lot of room to play with for his midweek strategy - bringing big family orientated entertainment back to midweek tv.

On the one hand, I think the show's format needs some serious retooling, and if that means going post-9pm then so be it. But then on the other, I don't think it's quite the "vote of confidence" that Lorraine seems to think it is. Cutting your episode order [i]by half[/b] and letting it go in an untested post-9pm slot is a good thing? Hmm... not sure I agree with that at all.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it's going to be a massive success. And I hate to think what is going to come of the cast and the crew of the show because they will be effected most by the changes.

They have a contract until 2010 - she might be dressing it up as a good thing, but this is a Richard and Judy style same episode order, just going to string it out for the double the time now.

I think its a really good idea. It frees up space, money and fills a 9pm slot every week with something quite reliable.

Perhaps the next move will be Emmerdale to 8pm and Corrie to 8:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Sunday.

Interesting.

Well naturally Lorraine will say it's a good thing - whether that's the general feeling behind-the-scenes is another thing.

This is an idea that has been suggested countless times on here (and most of us predicted the show would be cut to one episode a week anyway) so in a way I think it's good news, for a few reasons.

It's one less show to shift for the football on Wednesday nights, and it now frees up that 8pm slot for other stuff - particularly pre-watershed drama series that ITV1 don't really do outside of the weekend. The Bill itself will most likely benefit from this move as it can be reformatted into a more serious police procedural drama and shake off the 'soap' tag once and for all (from what I've seen I reckon they've been wanting to go down this route for a while, and it gives the show a wider scope in terms of storytelling).

I reckon it will occupy the Tuesday 9pm slot, perhaps in a bid to strengthen what is traditionally ITV's weakest night when the football disappears.